1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to forgery deterrent and authentication systems and methods, and more particularly to forgery deterrent and authentication systems and methods related to signatures.
2. Background Art
Forgery of signatures has been and remains a problem in all aspects of society wherein value is placed on the authenticity of a signature. This is true whether the signature is placed on an important document such as a will or contract or whether the signature is considered to have intrinsic value such as the signature of a celebrity. Indeed, a forger does not always have to be very good in order to be successful.
A system whereby any person whose signature is being protected ("Principal") could deter the forging of his or her signature and obtain authentication of his or her signature by the placement of a unique forgery proof medium next to his or her signature would be useful but is not available today.
An authentication system to guarantee the authenticity of sports memorabilia articles is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,047 dated Jan. 10, 1995 to Molee and Ellis and U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,756 dated Dec. 7, 1993 to Molee and Ellis, both assigned to The Upper Deck Company ("Upper Deck") (collectively "Molee Patents"). The Molee Patents require that the athlete sign the article being authenticated in the presence of an Upper Deck Authenticated representative. Upper Deck then places a hologram that contains a unique serial number on the article. A certificate of authenticity is then prepared by Upper Deck that contains a hologram identical to the hologram placed on the article. The memorabilia is packaged by Upper Deck with a registration card that gives the purchaser of the article the opportunity to register ownership of the article with Upper Deck.
However, the Upper Deck system is not designed to deter the forgery of signatures or to authenticate signatures generally. It is designed as a marketing tool for Upper Deck to ensure to the sports memorabilia buying public that the articles it is selling are authentic. Upper Deck's main business is the marketing of sports memorabilia, and it therefore has a pecuniary interest in ensuring a continuous supply of the very merchandise it is authenticating. Upper Deck's system is not designed to be used outside its market niche. Further, it requires that the article being authenticated be authenticated in the presence of an Upper Deck representative. Additionally, the serial number on the hologram is in no way unique to the athlete that signed the article but is only unique to the Upper Deck article. Upper Deck's system does not allow for the distribution of the authenticating holograms to athletes for their use when not signing in the presence of an Upper Deck representative.
Additionally, the hologram that is used by Upper Deck does not contain any information except the article's serial number. The system taught by the present invention allows a variety of information to be encoded into the information bearing medium including a unique personal identification number, a sequential code and an exact facsimile of the actual signature placed on the item itself.
An object of the present invention is to provide a general forgery deterrent and an authentication system for signatures.
Another object of this invention is to provide the signature with verifiable authentication indicia.
Another object of this invention is to establish a central registrar and data base for electronic fingerprints ("EF") that will encode Personal Identification Number ("PINs"), sequential codes ("Codes") and Facsimile Signatures on EFs.